Kittens taken from home are at Kent Animal Shelter
A local animal shelter in Calverton is lending a helping hand by offering to take in kittens recovered from a “hoarder” home.
As many as 40 cats were living in-and-out of a Miller Place house before local animal shelter workers stepped in to ease the burden for the resident Monday. The cats did not all live in the house at the same time.
Pam Green, the director at Kent Animal Shelter, said her shelter has taken in half a dozen cats so far, all of which are in good condition. Green said the homeowner has been cooperative in receiving help and getting the cats required medical care.
“They’re healthy for the most part,” Green said. “Some of them are very small and need to be bottle fed and when they’re old enough and can eat on their own they will be spayed and neutered and get their shots.”
Green said similar cases are not uncommon.
“It goes on more than you would like to think. In this situation people sometimes lose grasp of reality and become overwhelmed,” she said. “Maybe they just start out with a couple of pets and then more and more would show up and then they breed and then all of a sudden you have a huge colony.”
Green added: ”I’ve seen worse.”
Traps were placed around the home to pick up cats still on the loose. Green said the process may take as long as a couple of months.
She warned that having too many animals confined to a small living space can pose potentially serious health hazards.
“In these colonies sometimes you get [an animal] that comes in with a disease such as Leukemia and AIDS and they start passing it around the colony, so all the cats are going to be tested,” Green said.
The shelter has plenty of cats currently available for adoption and recently partnered with Petco. Together, once a month, they also host a pet adoption day, which Green says will be a big help.
“When you have too many pets together it puts stress on the animals,” she said. “It’s like when you have too many people and put them in a small place, good things usually don’t happen.”
